[Review] Boy From the Crowd – Where the Bees Come To Die

In one of the strangest EPs of 2016 thus far, East London punk-blues outfit Boy From The Crowd presents Where The Bees Come To Die, informing an unusual fusion of genres. An irrational and eclectic debut that undoubtedly stands apart from anything else edging into the “alt-garage-heavy-blues-punk-grunge” scene (like shooting fish in a barrel, right?) Where The Bees Come To Die attempts to round the corners on everything conceivably popular.

The EP actually does just that – Boy From The Crowd’s sound embodies the product of a playlist curated from The Bends to Brothers and everything in between that ends up becoming compacted into a set far too small for its own good. In attempting to construct a general consciousness of styles and attitudes the group bites off more than it can chew and the result is difficult to canonize altogether.

The titular track is clearly the standout on the EP, accomplishing something that lands in the park of a Blind Faith cut. The single “All I Need,” is the most brash, however, and sets up the group nicely for the remainder of tracks by introducing both a visual (see the single’s corresponding video) and a jumping off point to decide whether or not one can handle the rest.

Somewhere, this has got to be somebody’s bag. It may confuse some even further to learn that the group has a penchant for dressing up as what can only be described as Juggalos meet early Smashing Pumpkins, for others that could be an enormous draw in maintaining some campiness. In any case, one has to hand it to them for failing to provide something to wax poetic on and something that ought to be heard rather than read.